Book Review: The Chemical Garden Trilogy

Synopsis:
*I'm just going to include the synopsis for Wither so nothing will be spoiled if you want to read this series.*

Wither Synopsis:
By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?

Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

Book description and images via Goodreads

My Review:

Characters:
I liked the main character, Rhine, and how she was very determined and willing to sacrifice herself for those she loved. I also felt more attached to her husband, Linden, than to the boy she liked, Gabriel. I think that is due to the fact that Linden was in the books more than Gabriel was. So, I definitely would have liked the chance to get to know Gabriel better. I also thought the "villian," Housemaster Vaughn, was equal parts scary, sadistic, and mad scientist. I felt the frustration right along with Rhine when he continuously foiled her plans.

Plot:
My problem with a lot of trilogies is the story doesn't seem to flow. It seems like the author is stretching to try and fill pages with words to make the story into 3 books. That was why I loved Divergent and Matched, but the last two books in both of those series fell short for me. This trilogy was not like that. The author seemed to have a plan from the beginning and the whole story was told from beginning, middle, and end without useless, boring stuff in between. I'll admit that some of the things that happened seemed too convenient or unbelievable (like the amount of snow they are receiving in FLORIDA!). However, some of that stuff makes sense later in the trilogy. The concept overall does seem like a bit of a stretch and I had some trouble fully imagining this world, but it entertained me the whole time.

Resolution:
Some things seemed to come together way too conveniently in the end. It also felt a little rushed. I also feel like we were left kind of wondering how everything would turn out. There was still more I wanted to know about their parents as well. I would have liked an epilogue that gave us a glimpse into the characters' lives many years down the road. That way we would know if everything turns our alright for them or not.

My grade: I give it an A. I think if you typically like YA dystopian books, you'll like this trilogy.